The invention relates to a catalyst suitable for the selective dehydrogenation of n-butane, a process for the preparation of a catalyst suitable for the selective dehydrogenation of n-butane and the use of this catalyst in a process for the selective dehydrogenation of n-butane.
It is known that n-butane can be dehydrogenated to butenes in the presence of variety of catalyst supports impregnated with a variety of metals. The dehydrogenation often produces coke at a rate that spoils the reactivity of the catalyst in a sufficiently short period of time to render the commercial use of the catalysts infeasible. A catalyst composition has newly been found to be useful for selectively dehydrogenating n-butane to butene products without producing coke at a commercially inhibiting rate.
It is an object of this invention to at least partially dehydrogenate n-butane to butenes.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved zeolite-based catalyst that can be utilized in the dehydrogenation of n-butane to butenes.
A further object of this invention is to provide a method for making a zeolite-based catalyst that can be utilized in the dehydrogenation of n-butane to butenes.
A still further object of this invention is to accomplish the dehydrogenation of n-butane while minimizing the co-production of coke.
The invention is a zeolite-based catalyst in which an L-type zeolite that has been modified with titania is impregnated with platinum and tin to provide a catalyst composition and a process in which a feedstock containing n-butane is passed in contact with this catalyst composition under selective dehydrogenation conditions to yield butenes as product while minimizing the co-production of coke.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description and the appended claims.